10. The people are not to be trusted.

 There is one simple reason why we, as a nation, have struggled for the best part of 40 years to reconcile ourselves to the concept of the European Union. That reason is democracy. At its heart the EU does not believe in ‘democracy’ in the way that we do.

Ultimately, the EU does not trust ‘the people’. The self-appointed elite that governs from Brussels does not consider it safe to allow ‘the people’ to decide the important issues – or indeed to have any meaningful say at all in the affairs of the EU.

It’s not hard to fathom why this is so. Germany and France, have both suffered deep national trauma as a direct result of allowing ‘the people’ to decide.

Hitler did not seize power in March 1933 – the people voted him into office. He didn’t stage a coup. He didn’t ‘hijack’ the German state. He formed a legitimate coalition government in March 1933 having secured overwhelming popular support from the German people at the ballot box.

In the three federal elections that took place 1932-1933 Hitler’s NSDAP polled a significantly larger share of the popular vote than any of its rivals. In the last of these, the March 1933 election, the NSDAP won 44% of the popular vote, versus the SDP’s 18% in what was essentially a six-party contest. Agreed, the election took place against a background of severe economic turmoil and political violence (on both sides), but the fact is Hitler secured a clear popular mandate from the German people.

Ultimately Hitler’s success at the ballot box is the reason why the architects of the EU, from its inception, set out to build a political structure, which has all the trappings of a democracy (elections, MEPs, a parliament and such like) but actually ensures that ‘the people’ are never entrusted with any real democratic power.